Well, it's a good thing I brought some spare cash. Taylor and his party seems to be fully intent to wring me dry at this point. Especially after a certain goddess blurted out that I'm a billionaire in one of the drunken rambles.
Let's see, Keith is passed out drunk. Lynn is a little tipsy. Taylor is still drinking. The new adventurer excused himself. I myself decided not to get too drunk, opting to just drink a Neroid Swish.
"So, Taylor, what happened to Dust?" I asked the team's crusader.
Hearing that name, Taylor and Lynn stiffened a little. The latter has a dark look on her face.
"We kicked him out," Lynn replied curtly.
Taylor pat Lynn's shoulder a little before looking at me. "Kazuma, you really haven't heard, have you? What Dust been up to these past two weeks?"
Considering I was struggling with an impossible quest from Paradox these two weeks, I haven't heard at all about the grittier stuff in this place.
"What happened? Can you tell me more?"
Lynn, who was one of my first student, told me everything.
Apparently, Dust got in trouble for sexually harassing Mitsurugi's female companion, disrupting Sena during her work, peeking into woman's public bath, hunted by a dozen debt collectors, and… I have a feeling that Dust is who I would've become if Paradox didn't try to change my fate.
"I see…" I sighed a little and looked up. Is this what Paradox felt towards Aqua? If so, then I can somehow relate to her. "So, what's he up to now?"
"Fuck if I know," Lynn replied, slamming her drink. "That blood sucking parasite can go fuck himself."
Taylor shook his head and looked at me. "Sorry, Kazuma, Dust is a sensitive subject for Lynn," then he smiled a little. "By the way, what are you doing today? It's been almost a week since you visited the guild."
"Just relaxing… My girlfriend has taken over the Kotatsu, so I decided to go out for a bit," I turned towards the passed out Aqua beside me and snapped my fingers. Just like that, I teleported her back to her room in the mansion.
"Megumin, I teleported Aqua back,"
"Yessss, so nice and warm…"
I turned towards Lynn and saw her staring at me in slight jealousy. "What?"
"No, just…" Lynn took a deep breath. "Ahh… Just imagining how it feels like to have a party member like you, to just," she snapped her fingers. "And boom, problem solved."
"It's called difficulty scale," I told her. "To someone of my calibre, the problem of getting a girl back home is trivial. But the more powerful you are, the bigger problem you'll face," I chuckled a little mirthlessly.
"I don't even know if I can solve this one…"
Lynn's expression turned into that of worry. "What's wrong sensei? Did something happen?"
"You shouldn't worry about it,"
Taylor cleared his throat. "Actually, a problem that someone like you can't even solve is very worrying."
I realized that it's the perfect chance for me to pour in my worry to anyone else aside from Megumin.
"A goddess came to me to give me a personal quest,"
Lynn groaned a little. "Of course it's a goddess! Who else would come to you personally for a mission? Luna!?" she said in slight sarcasm.
"Well there's this troublesome prosecutor lady… But yeah, anyway, I got a mission from a goddess to save an entire city from a demon king attack."
Their expression turned grim after hearing that.
"Don't worry, it's not Axel, it's… Alcanretia, the main Headquarters of the Axis Order,"
Lynn sighed a little in relief. "Don't push yourself sensei, no one will blame you if that city is wiped out."
Taylor nodded in agreement. "Yes, the Axis Cult they… Well, you know how they are… Although saving lives matter, you shouldn't trouble yourself if you fail,"
I shook my head in response. "The goddess said that exact same thing, telling me that the main priority is killing the demon king general, not saving the city, but…" I turned to where Aqua was sitting. "I can't let a place so precious to Aqua to get wiped out like that…"
Their eyes widened a little after hearing that.
"So you're saying… Aqua sama is an Axis Cultist?" Lynn asked in disbelief.
"Yes, she's one of the high ranking cultist there," I told them. "Her power is said to be derived directly from the actual Goddess Aqua. That's why she's so powerful and her mana is almost limitless beyond human scale."
"Well, I believe you can save the city Kazuma sama," Taylor said encouragingly. "It's not the first time."
I gave him a weak smile before dropping my head on the table. "The said goddess forbid me to save the city if the Axis Order stays how they are right now," I turned my head slightly towards them. "You get what I mean? She literally gave me five side quests I have to complete before I can save the city."
I took out a crumpled piece of paper and handed it to them.
Lynn and Taylor took one look at the piece of paper and simply sat there in shocked disbelief.
"Kazuma san… But this is…" Taylor turned towards me. "This demand is outrageous no matter how you look at it…"
"Impossible, just impossible," Lynn said. "I think you'd have better luck storming the Demon King's castle," she looked down a little. "So this is what you've been up to this past week huh?"
They handed me back the paper. "Yeah, it's been on my mind for a week now…" I chuckled a little as I looked at them. "What I wouldn't do to switch place and power with you guys… Between saving one problematic friend and saving an entire problematic cult, I'll take the former anytime, any day…"
Lynn looked down, lost in thought.
Then, at that moment…
The guild door slammed open. Dust stepped into the guild, all calm and cool like. He waved at everyone else. "Sup!"
The guild turned silent and I silently cursed myself for locking myself up this past week. How the hell did I not know about this?
"Sensei," Lynn whispered suddenly. "Do you have a spell that can turn me invisible?"
I snapped my finger while casting silent invisibility spell Yunyun taught me. Just like that, Lynn vanished from existence.
"Thank you," her disembodied voice appeared in front of me.
Dust looked a little bit uncomfortable being stared at like that. He looked around for a bit before finally noticing Taylor sitting beside me. "Oh, Taylor, there you are! And senpai, hello!" he rushed in towards him towards us and sat next to Taylor, where Lynn was sitting moments ago.
"Oi, where's Lynn and," he looked at Keith who's passed out drunk. Then he turned towards me. "Ayy, senpai, thanks for treating us! Waitress, fried frog combo please!"
Again, are you really that insensitive to Killing Intent? I can feel her invisible murderous glare and it's not even directed at me.
"Dust," the guy turned towards me with a stupid grin on his face. "What's you been up to these past two weeks?"
Dust groaned a little and he began his side of story. It's somewhat similar to what Taylor just told me, only with Dust putting himself in the 'right' because he wants to get a lot of money and live a frivolous life without doing anything.
Okay, he's a piece of work alright. Almost like Aqua when she just arrived here. The only difference is that I managed to condition Aqua to listen to me before she could go haywire. Dust on the other hand, well, he doesn't have anyone keeping him in check.
But you know what? A little bit exercise like this is probably what I need before I attempt to do something like fixing up an entire cult. If I can't do it to Dust, there's nothing I can do to help the Axis Order.
Let's see… First off, figuring the root of his problem… Hmm… I know nothing about Dust's past…
"Say Dust, where do you came from?"
Dust paused for a moment after hearing that. "I came from the hood man, Dust is just a name a random stranger called me by, it just sticks to me, Dust,"
A guy like him has no reason to hide his past.
"Well, I was a shut in no life slob from a country called Japan where my only redeeming quality is my skills at rock paper scissors," I told him the honest truth.
Dust laughed out loud at that. Those who heard me including Taylor couldn't help but snort in disbelief.
"Say, Dust, what level are you?"
"Hmm? Somewhere in the teens," Dust replied simply.
"Hee… Are you strong?"
"Nothing against you Senpai… not at all…"
I rolled my eyes a little. Now I just need to make use of my stupidly large luck to take control of the situation. "Well, you could be some sort of a fallen legend from a distant land for all I know…" in other words, the opposite of me.
But that troubled look on Dust's face after I called him that tells me that my guess wasn't far off. "Yeah, and you were just a useless slob with no social life."
Okay, I'm getting somewhere. "So, Dust, I heard you know about one of the new member of my party," I told him.
Dust raised an eyebrow in interest. "There's a new one?"
"Yeah, Megumin's distant relative, Yunyun. She's an archwizard like Megumin, but she got a variety of spells up her sleeves," I told him. "You know about her?"
"I saw her once in a while in Sir's shop,"
"Sir?"
"You know, that masked dude? I think his name was Vanir."
Bingo! If the Vanir he's talking about is the Vanir I know, then he must've looked into Dust's head. Now all I have to do is ask Vanir what he knows about Dust. If that doesn't work, I just have to go with Plan B and infiltrate his dream.
"Oh, you mean the Demon King General Megumin blew up the other day?" I asked him. "What business do you have with him?"
"Well, he kinda just… came to me telling me that he knows a way for me to earn quick money. Well, who don't want more money? You probably, but for a poor guy like me, even doing a business with the Devil is probably worth it."
"So, what did he make you do?"
"He hired me to help with the shop."
"Hee… You're comfortable with him around? I met him for like three minutes and he can already name all my biggest fears and dirtiest secret," I told him. "Seriously man, it felt like that demon can see into your past! Creepy… But he's a cool guy tho, he wouldn't use it for blackmail material or something."
The frozen stiff look on Dust's face is a checkmate for me. "Right… th-thanks for the warning…" he muttered.
"You okay Dust?"
"I'm okay, yeah…"
"Don't worry, you're not the only one doing a business with Vanir. I'm also on a good terms with him, just yesterday we talked about missions, humiliated me and my party, and drink tea with Wiz. But he's also really informative tho, and resourceful. I bought a harmonica for an outrageous price of twenty thousand Eris from him."
"Shit…" Dust cursed silently to himself.
I pretended not to hear that. "You say something?"
"N-nothing… Say, this Vanir san, just powerful is he?"
"When he said he's more powerful than the Demon King, I couldn't feel any trace of lies… Then he also said that, no matter how many times you kill him, he will always return, good as new,"
After a few minutes, I stood up from my position and stretched my arms a little. "Welp, I'm going to go now," I put some money on the table and grabbed Lynn's invisible hand. "Aqua gets jealous easily if I spend too much time with other party members."
We walked a little ways outside the guild before I teleported Lynn and myself in front of Wiz's shop. I dispelled Lynn's invisibility spell and saw her looking down, deep in thought. "Welp, did you learn something?"
Lynn nodded a little. "Dust is being toyed around by the shackles of the devil."
I bonked her in the head. "No, Dust is a guy who's running away from his past and the thought of someone knowing about who he was terrified him," I explained.
"So he's an even worse criminal long time ago?"
"I dunno, let's ask someone who knows shall we?"
I opened the door and saw Vanir standing inside the store. "Welcome back Satou Kazuma who still hasn't figured out the goddess and the undead riddle and welcome Lynn who's troubled by her own taste of man and the one named Dust."
"Well, you know why I'm here, we're all curious about Dust."
The Devil of Foresight grinned. "Congratulations Kazuma, you've found the missing link."